Entitled

Entitled

To be honest, writing a blog takes a lot of discipline that I don’t seem to have at the moment. So this blog is kind of forced, but I promise that there is a lot of neat stuff I have to tell you about. 🙂 I also couldn’t come up with a catchy title so that’s why I titled it the way I did. 😛

Monday I went with my host sister and her aunt to a place called Adventura de Colombia. It was a very tourist-y place that showcased various cultural things about Colombia. Dancing, food, crafts, music, animals-the whole nine yards.

On Tuesday, we had an incredible time of English lessons. Before I came to Colombia, my mother and I found some little workbooks at Dollar Tree for Phonics and whatnot. I was not for sure how helpful they would be or if my host sister would like them, but Y’ALL! She really enjoys working in the workbooks I bought. SCORE. They are also helping.

So Tuesday she worked in the workbook with my assistance. We continued learning about different blending sounds. We also do word searches then talk about the unfamiliar words and their meanings, so Tuesday we did a couple of those. I taught her about the short and long A sounds and the short and long E sounds, then had her do activities with that.

I brought a white board and some markers, so I tried a game with her to see if it would be beneficial and engaging enough for her, and she ended up liking it even though it was challenging. I gave her sixty seconds to write as many words as she could beginning with a given letter. The results were about what I expected, but it is something we can do frequently. Doing so will give me an idea of the type of progress she is making, as well as giving her some kind of goal to achieve.

She is also writing in compete sentences in English. Nothing complex of course, but I am VERY proud of her. Getting her to converse with me in English is still a task, but she will do it some. I can tell she is becoming more comfortable with it, though.

So Wednesday was July 20, which is Independence Day for Colombia! I went with my host sister, her mom, two aunts, and two cousins to Lake Guatavita. We walked around a village located there, ate lunch, and enjoyed the views of the lake.

Our lunch was typical Colombian food. I enjoyed fish(that still had its eyes), rice, fried plantains, and potatoes.

So a cool historical fact about Guatavita: If you know anything about the El Dorado legend, then you should know that Guatavita is allegedly the center of worship and the place of ceremonies that gave rise to the legend. It was incredibly to be in a place with so much history, myth or not. I will make a post later in my trip or when I am home with a bunch of pictures, so you can see just how breathtaking it was.

Since it was a holiday, I saw a lot of people out with their loved ones. I loved seeing that. I loved seeing families made up of all ages, and I loved seeing young couples enjoying their time together. Love is something that isn’t absent from any culture. It definitely made me ache for home, my family, my friends, and my incredible boyfriend, but I am also kind of sad that I only have 16 days left here in Colombia.

I can’t decide if that is a long time or a short time, but whichever, I am determined to make the most of it!

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

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